Kelsey Arias (she/her)
Email: dka@pdx.ed
Education
MSW, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
BA in Sociology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Professional Experience
Kelsey brings over a decade of experience in trauma-informed advocacy, crisis intervention, and systems-level violence prevention. She currently serves as Director of the Confidential Advocacy Program at Oregon Health & Science University, where she leads campus-wide efforts to support individuals impacted by interpersonal and sexual violence, harassment, and discrimination. Her work has centered on supporting sex workers, individuals who have experienced sex trafficking, those utilizing substances as a means of coping or survival, people experiencing suicidality, and victim-survivors of power-based violence. Across roles, Kelsey has supervised interdisciplinary teams, developed survivor-centered programming, facilitated institutional policy change, and secured substantial grant funding to expand access to care. Her approach is grounded in harm reduction, anti-oppression, and non-carceral values, with a strong emphasis on building systems of support that meet people where they are.
Academic/Research Interests
Kelsey's research centers on the intersections of sexual violence, suicidality, and non-carceral crisis response. She is particularly interested in how systems - including higher education and healthcare respond to trauma, and how survivors navigate institutional barriers. Grounded in anti-oppression, transformative justice, and peer support frameworks, her work aims to reimagine responses to harm outside of punitive systems. Kelsey serves on Multnomah County's Sexual Assault Response Team and the Oregon DA's Sexual Assault Task Force. In 2024, she was recognized with multiple university awards for her contributions to survivor support and institutional change.
Personal Interests
Kelsey loves hanging out with her dogs, crocheting or sewing, reading, and attempting to garden. She values creativity, rest, and connection as essential parts of sustaining community and justice-focused work.
Maya Fela (she/her)
Email: mfela@pdx.edu
Education
MSSW University of Texas at Austin
BA in Criminology, with minors in Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University
Professional Experience
Maya was part of the “Innovative Healing Centered Project” at the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, funded by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. At the National Disability Center for Student Success at UT Austin, she contributed to efforts aimed at improving accessibility across college campuses nationwide. As a teaching assistant in the College of Education, Maya worked with undergraduate and graduate students to critically examine representations and experiences of disability within educational settings. Additionally, in her role at the Longhorn Wellness Center, she supported students through various peer-led support groups.
Academic/Research Interests
Marginalized Groups, Intersectionality, Social Determinants of Health, Health Disparities, Individuals with Disabilities, Chronic Illness, Mental Health, Complex Trauma, Trauma-Informed Care, Social Isolation, Loneliness, Social Justice.
Personal Interests
Listening to podcasts, reading, swimming, exploring different cultures, and her fur babies.
Susan Halverson (she/her)
Email: shalver2@pdx.edu
Education
Master of Science in Justice and Social Inquiry, Arizona State University
Bachelor of Science in Biological Aspects of Conservation, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professional Experience
Susan Halverson, MS, leads Elemental Initiatives to work in partnership with residents and other community stakeholders, engaging people in the design, development and implementation of their ideas for improving their communities. Previously, at Arizona State University Entrepreneurship & Innovation, she led a team creating, funding, implementing, and evaluating programs to support to groups underrepresented in entrepreneurship. And prior to that, she led campaigns for housing, financial, environmental, and health justice with Arizona Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
Academic/Research Interests
Susan is interested in research that informs policymaking and supports advocacy on a wide range of issues that impact peoples' daily lives: housing, labor, education, and safety. She is especially curious about how communities build and lose power to make decisions in these areas. She currently collaborates on research to understand the reparative potential of a community preference policy in affordable housing.
Personal Interests
reading fiction, hiking, home remodeling, and cooking
Daniel Howell (he/him)
Email: dh9@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, University of Oklahoma
B.A., Psychology, Oral Roberts University
Professional Experience
Professional experience includes two years of Americorps service at a community-based organization dedicated to prison abolition. Following this appointment, I've worked in various levels of community-based organizations, primarily dedicated to youth services and housing. Most recently; I researched, developed, and implemented a medical self-management curriculum for long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS.
Academic/Research Interests
Substantive research areas include housing justice, youth development, queer liberation, and continuous quality improvement for community-based organizations
Personal Interests
Personal interests include long-distance running, surfing, mutual aid, and the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
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Passion Ilea (any pronouns)
Email: pilea@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Portland State University
BSW, Portland State University
Professional Experience
Passion has worked on projects concerning health and wellbeing for migrant and other targeted populations, behavioral health, and health systems.
Academic/Research Interests
Passion is interested in conducting health systems research at the structural and socioeconomic levels to reduce health inequity without sacrificing efficiency.
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Hyeyoung Kang (she/her)
Email: hyekang@pdx.edu
Education
Master's in Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Bachelor's in Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Professional Experience
Hyeyoung worked as a research assistant and was involved in several Korean government research projects aimed at improving and enhancing child welfare in South Korea. Her work included setting up prevention systems for child abuse, improving programs for youth aging out of out-of-home care, developing evaluation systems for childcare centers, and advocating for children's right to participate in decision-making processes.
Academic/Research Interests
Hyeyoung has a research focus on child welfare, children and families, vulnerable children, and resilience.
Dalton Martin (he/him/suyo)
Email: dalmarti@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, New York University
B.A., University of Colorado Boulder
Professional Experience
Since graduating from NYU in 2018, Dalton has worked primarily in hospital settings, with an emphasis in emergency departments, as well as on the inpatient psychiatric unit and utilization management. Between shifts, he completed a psychoanalytic fellowship at New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute and joined a research team to examine the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on the mental health of children and adolescents. Most recently, Dalton transitioned to outpatient psychotherapy, working with both children and adults. His commitment to social work is deeply rooted from his formative experience servicing in the Peace Corps in Ecuador.
Academic/ Research Interests
climate management and disaster impact; socioeconomic and demographic disparities; stress and trauma related disorders; familial load of psychiatric disorders
Personal Interests
travel, photography, trail running, mountains, novels, pasta
Kelly Myers Sugahara (she/her)
Email: kemyers@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Catholic University of America
MA in Irish Studies, University College Cork
Graduate Cert in Gender, Race, and Nations, Portland State University
B.A. in Social Work, Catholic University of America
Professional Experience
I am a licensed clinical social worker specializing in healing practices related to trauma recovery, addiction and substance misuse concerns, and general mental health and wellness. In my private practice, I work primarily with folx in the LBGTQ+ community; and since the outbreak of COVID, have also worked at Providence Portland Medical Center as an inpatient social worker. I have 17 years of experience in clinical settings that include substance misuse treatment programs, culturally integrated treatment, and community health settings.
Academic/ Research Interests
Trauma Informed Care, Ethnic Studies, Trauma Recovery and Healing, Addiction & Substance Misuse
Personal Interests
Mythology, trail running, travel, reading for fun (fantasy, science fiction, more mythology)
Lillian Navarro-Reynolds (she/her)
Email: navar3@pdx.edu
Education
Master of Physician Assistant Studies, Northeastern University
B.S. in General Science, University of Oregon
Professional Experience
Physician Assistant in Endocrinology, Family Medicine and outreach to seasonal agricultural workers. Associate Professor at OHSU Department of Physician Assistant education
Academic/Research Interests
Health Equity, Increasing access to medical education, Re-designing medical education to remove traditional power structures
Thao Thi Bich Nguyen (she/her)
Email: thaot@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Portland State University
B.Ed., English Education, Quy Nhon University, Vietnam
Professional Experience
Thao's professional experience spans the fields of child welfare, inter-country adoption, and international program development, nongovernmental leadership & management, monitoring, and evaluation. She holds a Master's degree in social work, awarded through the Fulbright Scholarship.
Academic/Research Interests
Her scholarly interests lie in research that contributes to the development and preparedness of the social work workforce, encompassing social work education, nonprofit and global leadership & management, policy advocacy, and program impact evaluation.
Personal Interests
Exploring trails and occasionally getting lost in the woods.
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Monique de Oliveira (she/her)
Email: moniqued@pdx.edu
Education
MSSW, University of Texas at Austin
Specialization in State Law and Regulation, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Bachelor's Degree in Law, Candido Mendes University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Professional Experience
Monique de Oliveira began her professional journey as a lawyer in her country of origin, advocating for low-income individuals and families. While deeply committed to justice, she found that the limitations of the legal system often hindered her ability to provide the direct and timely support people needed. This realization led her to pursue a career in social work, a field she believes offers more immediate and meaningful ways to serve others.
During an internship at a nonprofit organization in Austin, Monique supported women and families in vulnerable situations and witnessed firsthand the harsh realities of housing insecurity. This experience deepened her commitment to advocating for humane and effective solutions to support unhoused populations.
She was later selected as an ACT LEND trainee at the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed coursework focused on culturally informed diagnosis, support, and advocacy for children with autism spectrum disorder. She also contributed to research efforts through data collection, analysis, and project development in this area.
Monique subsequently interned at the Autism Society of Texas, assisting individuals and families in accessing services and navigating complex systems. In addition to her clinical and advocacy work, she contributed to several research projects, including studies on palliative care preferences among Latino individuals with cancer, health disparities in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, and the impact of housing conditions in Austin.
Academic/Research Interests
Her main interests include the intersection of homelessness and aging, and a cross-national analysis of access to ABA treatment for autistic children. Her goal is to inform responsive public policies and practices that expand access and support for these individuals.
Personal Interests
Monique enjoys spending time in nature, where she feels connected to God and finds space for reflection and inner peace. She cherishes time with family and friends, loves reading novels and going to concerts, and finds purpose in volunteering for social campaigns.
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Grace Pappas (they/she)
Email: gpappas@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, San Diego State University - Title IV-E Concentration
B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Child Development, California Polytechnic State University
Professional Experience
Grace received their MSW degree from San Diego State University in 2018. They worked for San Diego County Child Welfare Services for three years before pursuing their PhD. They are an LCSW in the state of Oregon. They have also worked in wraparound family services, domestic violence, substance use, community mental health, and most recently supervised MSW interns in New Narrative's adult residential treatment program.
Academic/Research Interests
Grace's research explores questions related to child welfare, gender and sexuality, evangelicalism, and the intersections of these areas. They are particularly interested in evangelical discourses of foster and adoption, and historical constructions and regulations of the family. They approach these topics through interpretive and constructivist methods such as content and critical discourse analysis as well as historical and archival methods. Their work is informed by post-structuralist and critical theories (including critical feminisms, critical race theory, queer theory, and critical histories).
Personal Interests
Grace loves being outside camping, hiking, mountain biking, or lounging by the river with friends. They are a pretend home-chef and avid Top Chef watcher. They know a strangely large number of things about the Donner Party.
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Meghan Perry (she/her/hers)
Email: megperry@pdx.edu
Education
MPA, Portland State University
Bachelor degree in Journalism Communication Studies, University of Oregon
Professional Experience
Meg has a dozen years of training, evaluation, and teaching experience in child and youth work settings. Her practice experience stems from relational youth work with 7+ years providing coaching, evaluation, and capacity building support to youth serving organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest. In this work Meg has advised and advocated on behalf of child and youth care settings including but not limited to local, state, and national policy initiatives tied to the delivery of child welfare, education, juvenile justice and community-based child and youth care services.
Academic/Research Interests
Meg's research interests are in the intersections of equity, health, and wellness. She is deeply curious about ways social conditions interact with individual and collective experiences of consciousness. In her scholarship she grounds to critical relational constructionism, which emphasizes co-construction of meaning in processes of connectedness towards social change. She leans into intersecting orientations including: Critical Race, Indigenous, Critical Disability, Feminisms, and Post-Structuralism. Through these vantages, in teaching and scholarship she aims to support paradigmatic shifts that create openings for a range of intersectional orientations to knowing and being. Meg is passionate about spaces that offer young people, families, and child and youth care workers opportunities to explore action-oriented change processes alongside one another in ways that empower people to navigate oppressive environments safely, while simultaneously building agency in actively unsettling dehumanizing systems. She aims to share tools and practices to intervene on experiences of personal safety, power, and enhanced awareness of intersecting dynamics that influence individual and communal wellbeing. In all her endeavors, Meg is deeply committed to contributing to individual and community-centered healing.
Personal Interests
As a product of the Pacific Northwest Meg finds solace and peace in the mountains, forests, and rivers, and ground to aspects of being through outdoor adventure pursuits as well as yoga and meditation. Meg and her family reside in the Columbia River Gorge and enjoy Friday night homemade pizza nights, living room dance parties, and adventuring the Pacific Northwest.
Steffannie Roache (she/her)
Email: sroache@pdx.edu
Education
MS, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Southern Oregon University
BS, Human Development, Warner Pacific University
Professional Experience
Steffannie is a Licensed Professional Counselor, educator, and trainer with a focus on trauma-informed care, cultural healing, and health equity. She teaches at PSU and works with communities across Oregon and Washington to co-create practices that are grounded, responsive, and culturally relevant. Her work includes curriculum design, systems training, and community-rooted models.
Academic/Research Interests
Steffannie’s research focuses on culturally responsive trauma-informed practices, intergenerational healing, and how systems can better support professionals with lived experience. She’s especially interested in community-rooted frameworks that honor human complexity, cultural identity, and long-term healing beyond traditional clinical models.
Personal Interests
Spending time with family and friends, listening to music, travel, and exploring traditional healing practices, storytelling, and ancestral wisdom across cultures.
Ellie Roberson (she/her)
Email: ellieco@pdx.edu
Education
MSSW, Abilene Christian University
BSW, Abilene Christian University
Professional Experience
Professional experience includes providing mental health therapeutic services to young adults and youth in a variety of settings, including wilderness, community-based, crisis, and within a local high school.
Academic Research and Interests
Areas of interest include sustainability for providers in the mental health field, improved service provision to young people, and increasing awareness and support for those experiencing psychosis.
A.P. Spoth
Email: spothap@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, University of Vermont
B.A. in Music, SUNY Buffalo State College
Professional Experience
A.P.'s practice has centered around working with individuals and families who have experienced trauma in both clinical and non-clinical settings, working from an explicitly depathologizing frame.
Academic/Research Interests
A.P.'s research, broadly speaking, works to problematize taken-for-granted norms about social work as a field, clinical social work practice, and who social workers are. A.P. is particularly interested in "lived experience" both as a concept used in social work literature/research/education and as an embodied reality for many (and potentially all) social workers.
Elaine Yi Lam Szeto (she/her)
Email: eszeto@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Portland State University
BA in International Studies and Chinese Literature, University of Oregon
Professional Experience
Elaine spent her decade-long social work career at VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS) in a variety of areas, including homeless care, suicide prevention, substance use treatment, and health systems research. She was part of a national team that completed a Congressionally Mandated Report, which advises US Congress on the feasibility and advisability of expanding current VA Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program to include sexual assault support services nationwide. Elaine also served in the role of LGBTQ+ Health Program Coordinator and supported its expansion throughout VAPORHCS. Elaine is trained in Expressive Arts Therapy and Clinical Hypnosis. As an LCSW, she is motivated to help people nurture their innate vitality through authentic expression. Elaine was raised in Hong Kong and is bilingual in Cantonese and English.
Academic/Research Interests
Experience of first-generation and historically excluded college student; sense of place and belonging for immigrants in the diaspora; equity and access to health and education systems; arts-based research; hermeneutic phenomenology
Personal Interests
Cats, walks, solitude, musing, jazz, stories
Joseph Vera (any pronoun)
Email: jovera@pdx.edu
Education
MA in Communication Disorders, Louisiana State University
MPH in Epidemiology, University of North Texas Health Science Center
BA in Psychology and BS in Speech-Language Pathology, University of Texas at Dallas
Professional Experience
6 years as a clinical speech language pathologist
Academic/Research Interests
disability justice with a particular interest in autistic adults
Personal Interests
food/drink, gaming (board, video, tabletop), fishing